The Usual Award Suspects - Plus One

Remember the Far Side? Gary Larson’s genius comic strip? Sure you do. If you don’t, Google it, but leave yourself some time because his magical world will keep you scrolling for days.

Many of us have awards. Most sales. Highest revenue. Highest gross profit. Whatever. But we all know who’s getting those before the awards meeting. Right? No big surprises.

Ralph Harrison wins all the awards. Every year. Everybody else is jealous. Can’t you hear all the complaining? He gets the best tracts. He has the most traffic. His houses are better. He’s in a better location. His buyers are more qualified. On and on the grumbling goes. The sales awards meeting, which is supposed to be a motivational moment for everyone acknowledging the terrific work by the team, can turn into an emotional swamp. Even though you try, Lord knows you try, to let everyone know how much you appreciate them, since this is a business in the real world, you don’t give out participation trophies.

On the other hand, all of us have known someone who distinguishes themselves in a unique way. A non-award-winning way. Someone who overcame something intangible but hugely significant that doesn’t make it into a sales report.

At one of the places I worked we had an extremely slow-moving community (0.3 sales per week) and I needed to make a change. So, I moved Cindy from her solid selling community to the windswept icy tundra of the new home equivalent of Siberia. Understandably, she was suspicious. This would be her first community as the solo, lead agent. I told her there was no doubt in my mind that a fresh face in the sales office was what was needed. She hesitantly said okay. What else could she do?

So, what happened? Week 1 – Cindy sells 3 homes. Week 2 – Cindy sells 3 more homes. Week 3 – she sells 4 homes. Week 4 – she sells nothing because she had sold out of her available inventory the week before. The next weekend we have a new phase opening and Cindy sells 9 of the 12 homes she released. For those of you keeping score that’s 19 homes in 5 weeks. She sold more homes in 5 weeks than the other guys had sold in over a year. I’ll pause now so you can let that sink in. More sales in 5 weeks than in over a year. Have you ever heard of or seen such a drastic turnaround? Impressive seems so inadequate.

Other than the self-satisfaction in knowing she had done a world-class 360, what awards were headed her way? Over the course of a year, she didn’t have enough sales to win an award in any of the categories at the annual sales awards shindig in Vegas. Other communities had more revenue. Or more cumulative sales. Yet everybody in the Company knew about Cindy. Everybody. To leave her out of the awards ceremony would be tragic. So, what do you do to honor Cindy?

Enter Ralph Harrison.

We took the comic, had it lasered on one of those smallish clear acrylic deals that are shaped like a rock, added her name along with the company’s name. With an envelope filled with some dead presidents as fun money, we made a presentation to her.

Over the years we gave away a few Ralph Harrison Awards. A few. It wasn’t an annual thing. You can’t just give one away because it’s awards season. It wasn’t a participation trophy. It was something special. Something earned through difficult and extraordinary circumstances. And everybody knew it.

With Cindy and all of her sales, what had really happened? She inherited the same crummy, smelly tiki room sales office. The same bad traffic that before hadn’t wanted to buy. The same mediocre advertising and marketing campaign. The same poor model location. The newer condominium community was still there, selling away. She inherited all the excuses. But she brought a new attitude. A confidence that she was the one to turn it around. Confidence to make it work. Against the odds, Cindy saw the opportunity, grabbed it, and made history.

Sometimes you wonder about some of your initiatives. Will they work? Are they effective? Cindy, and the other salespeople who earned a Ralph Harrison award, won plenty of other sales awards and trophies. But the only one I ever saw on their desk or in their sales office was Ralph Harrison. Sitting quietly, usually next to their business cards.

Sales managers should figure out a way to honor the Cindy’s on their sales teams. Not every day. Not even a lot. But every now and then. They need to be honored with something special. Recognized in a manner appropriate to their success. To not do so is a sales manager crime against salespeople.

Spread the honor. Celebrate the good. Notice what’s special, even if it’s not in the typical award-winning way.

Here’s to better selling!